‘Millions’ Of Additional Hosts Needed For Airbnb To Satisfy Rising Demand

As travel resumes after the COVID-19 pandemic, Airbnb will need a bevy of new hosts to house travelers. The home sharing site currently has 4 million hosts, CNBC reported.

“To meet the demand over the coming years, we’re going to need millions more hosts,” Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said in a televised CNBC interview on Friday (April 16). “I think that we probably will have a high cost problem where there will probably be more guests coming to Airbnb than we’ll have hosts for, because … we think there’s going to be a travel rebound coming that’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”

While Chesky said that the company is “working our hardest” to add more hosts, the home sharing platform isn’t likely provide many incentives to attract hosts.

“I think that all we have to do is just continue to tell our story of Airbnb, and the benefits of hosting,” Chesky said.

Chesky’s interview with CNBC comes as the travel sector is experiencing a rise in business with more Americans receiving the coronavirus inoculation and state restrictions relaxing.

The news comes as visiting family and friends, traveling and venturing to events all topped the list of activities consumers told PYMNTS they were eager to start once more after the pandemic period has passed.

Sixty-five percent say that the thing that are most anticipating is seeing their family and friends once more, while 60 percent say they want to travel domestically once more and 59 percent would like to take part in leisure activities such as playing sports, seeing movies and going to concerts and other kinds of events.

The pent-up demand is about to be unleashed, as summer vacation season officially begins in approximately six weeks, or at least, that is the recent prediction from Airbnb.

“As US citizens look to turn their pent-up travel dreams into reality, combined with President Biden’s plan to get the nation back outside by July 4, guests are increasingly looking for ways to safely reunite and meaningfully connect with loved ones on Airbnb,” the company wrote in a March blog post.